Tribeless

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Re: a lamb cut i have never seen before Yeah, I'm from the home of lamb, off a farm and do the books for two butchers: never heard of a lamb breast. As others have stated, it would be a cheap cut to get rid of the fatty meat from the end of what I assume is the rack, sold separately as a high valued cut. A lot of the taste is in the fat, but that would be very fatty. I'm thinking almost cook it like a muttonbird: that is, in water for about six hours. Throw water away, do again. Throw water away again, and grill brown on the Komodo. It would get rid of the majority of the fat, and possibly leave tender meat. Though I suspect I'd then casserole it.

Back from eight weeks off. Depressing, but my KK keeping spirits up. A lamb roast done, and a whole hare, so far.

Re: Set up for Spatchcocked Chicken For what it's worth, I cook most meats (roast size) indirectly, however, I find chicken cooked directly, but over 'lowish' heat, gives me better results than cooked indirectly (just for chicken). It stays much juicer. (Still stuck in the holiday home with the gas Weber ... mutter, mutter).

Re: We're all ok. Earthquake was far away.. Never fear, my KK arrived into Lyttelton, Christchurch, during a vicious aftershock sequence, and I had visions of getting it out of the crate in pieces. Not a scratch on it - they're tough. On a big one, you and family should probably just climb into a KK.

Re: A Sad Story Didn't bring a camera ... probably going to buy an iPad next trip to town, though, so who knows

Re: A Sad Story I landed the snapper, with a rod broken in two. Had him for tea (though I overcooked, in foil, on gas).

We're at our holiday home in a place called the Marlborough Sounds for the next eight weeks. I caught a Snapper big enough yesterday evening to break my surf caster in two, so until I can get my client, who owns a sports store, to courier me another, I'm fishing off a dinghy. The sad part of the story? My KK is an eight hour drive at our home in Geraldine, sitting all by itself on the balcony. At the holiday home I'm cooking on a gas Weber. (Really missing my KK ... and all these fish that could've been smoked. I'm thinking of buying a 19 inch KK for here ... we'll see. You certainly get addicted to them and going from charcoal and smoke back to gas is the pits).

Re: Annoying the neighbours I'm right now smoking mesquite. Blue, aromatic smoke waffling around my yard: I might just open a bottle of wine and not even bother putting any food in there

Re: Annoying the neighbours Um, why buy a lovely smoking machine like a KK and not use it for that? Set it up somewhere to use all of its great features. You will regret it otherwise. Oh, re above post, I get the smoke pouring out of mine: love that smokey flavour. And I just love seeing smoke pouring out In fact put your hands and arms all through the smoke, and get the aroma all night. Better than Lynx.

Re: Joining the Happy line Cheers Firemonkey ... do you need to put the probe in hot water to bend, or, just bend slowly and carefully?

Re: Joining the Happy line Ah, yes I was wondering if putting under the lid like that would damage the probe. The one I've bought also has the 90 degree bend so I shall straighten that out (though I'm also thinking if I just pull the rubber probe hole plug out I may be able to just fit the rubber plug around it, then simply carefully feed probe through the probe hole in the KK without bending ... no idea yet until I give it a go, but, work beforehand ...

Re: Joining the Happy line Another club member. Looks like a great little spot of the earth you've got there also, Gert. What are those trees in the background of that first photo. Also, what's that temperature probe you're using? I see you've not got it through the probe hole: just through the lid gasket - that worked fine? Mine arrived by courier yesterday: can't wait to give it a go, and don't know if I can get it through the probe hole yet.

Re: Everyday Misc Cooking Photos w/ details They look devine mk1. I indirect cooked/smoked a chicken yesterday also. Simply rubbed in some herbs, used a little smoked garlic salt, and cooked for about two hours on 150 F, smoking with hickory and mesquite. Still stunned at how moist chicken comes up on the KK

Re: New Grill - Concord, CA I bought mine with the side table/cabinet: wouldn't be without it. A working surface, plus I can keep everything connected to the KK in it, including my Weber chimney - all tidy and handy.

Re: Uncaring........ I took mine off the front, so not too sure. I can't see a problem so long as you've got at least a couple of bodies to throw under it if it goes wrong, to break the landing Seriously. don't try and do it by yourself. You should have yourself, and at least one hefty bloke. Also, to lighten the weight and danger of it going wrong, I took the lid off: I would highly recommend that before you go any further. The Naked Whizz has a very good page on moving the Komodo (including taking lid off) here: http://www.nakedwhiz.com/productreviews/komodokamado/kk.htm You should read that page before you do anything further ... despite how impatient you may be getting. Report back on how it goes.

Re: New Grill - Concord, CA Welcome to the club.

Re: Pheasant By the time I've cooked it, I'm more concerned about eating it than photographing it Actually I meant to, but Saturday, had a bit of vino ... forgot. Next time.

Did a pretty good pheasant in the KK today. I spatchcocked it, brushed on olive oil, then seasoned well with pepper and smoked garlic salt, plus generous sprigs of thyme from the garden. Then to lard (*) it, put bacon not just over breast, but all of upper side of pheasant, including legs and wings. Put into KK, cooked on indirect method for three hours, at 180 F, which got internal meat temp to 140, then turned up KK to get good smoke with mesquite, plus took meat temperature up to 170 K (salmonella dies at 165 F so must get to that) then took off and let rest, breast side down for juices to flow back into (**), for ten minutes under foil. I was really impressed. I achieved the best smoking flavour in the pheasant and the bacon I've got yet (mesquite chips in foil with holes in on top of charcoal working really well, Dennis). And thanks to the larding (*), the meat was as moist as a correctly cooked chicken, and tender. I'll certainly be doing pheasant again like this. A great mix of flavours, both in the skin and the meat. * Larding: because pheasant is a very lean game bird, it can cook very dry. Larding is a process of putting fat into the bird. The easiest way to achieve this is to layer with bacon, to transfer the fat from that (and you get to eat lovely smoked bacon). ** Also note, as with chicken, I always let rest breast down as this allows juices to go back into the relaxing breast meats. Works a treat for succulent, moist breast meat.

Re: On the Fence...Need Advice! Yep, I second Michael and rorkin. Plus I use mine four to six nights a week. I'm lucky though, because I work from home, but I often go out and simply place the charcoal still in the pit from a previous burn, into a charcoal chimney, two pieces of newspaper under it, light it, shut the lid with it in the pit about 5.30pm, then go back to work. Without fail 20 minutes later the charcoal is going, I tip it into the pit, shut the lid with top and bottom dampeners wide open. I stop work at 6.00pm,, watch the first five minutes of headlines news on the networks, pause the news on MySky, grab a glass of wine, or beer on a hot day, by which time I have enough heat to sear some steaks, or whatever on an open KK. I find it works really well. Back to news and tea.

Re: VersaGrill Are there any VersaGrill's left?

Re: My First Brisket Cheers Cook_Chack: you're a gentleman. I've put a question up to the guy selling them on Trademe.

Re: My First Brisket I'm looking at these four probes on our local Trademe (like your Ebay): can you tell by looking if they all have bends in the probe? They all look straight to me: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/SearchR ... uggested=0

Re: My First Brisket Brilliant. Cheers for that Paswesley ... I'll pick one up.

Re: My First Brisket Gary, searing a steak is quite different to indirect cooking on the KK. To get to those high temperatures simply to sear a steak, I'd simply have the top dampener unscrewed so I could see a gap, and I'd open the bottom dampener plus pull it out. Close lid on these settings to create the draft needed - the KK is designed to create the draft, but only when you have lid down - until it gets up to the temperature you want (with only lower sear grill in), then open lid, and keep it open while cooking your steak (ie, for searing steak just use it like a normal BBQ once you're up to temperature. Be warned, though, it's hot down there, you'll get a lovely criss cross on the meat, and great flavour, but if you like rare - and that's how steak should be cooked - you'll hardly need it in there. Some here use the dwell method, cooking hot, then closing down, but I've found with the heat stored in the KK my steaks get over-cooked doing this. Once I have my steak out, I close the lid and both dampeners to put the charcoal out. I've never had such great tasting, or great looking, steaks as on my KK. .... for cooking outside of searing, I'm still learning the top dampener: I find the bottom one was quite easy to get to grips with. By the way, I use a charcoal chimney inside the firepit with the KK lid closed to get my charcoal going. Works perfectly for me, never a miss-fire.